One of the main reasons for the delay in normalizing the relations between the former citizens of a common state is the prevailing feeling that the hardships sustained by the side an individual comes from were particularly great, and that this is not acknowledged by the members of other communities in the region. The domineering feeling among victims is that their voice is not heard outside the community they belong to. This is one of the reasons why, in the past few years, civil society organizations from the post-Yugoslav countries began to address the need to establish a regional body or mechanism where victims from all parts of former Yugoslavia could speak about their suffering in front of representatives of other communities.
The second reason for constituting a regional mechanism lies in the very character of events from the former decade. All armed conflicts had a strong regional dimension – citizens of other countries took part in the conflicts on the territory of one country, the missing individuals had been deported to other countries before they went missing, hundreds of thousands had sought refuge from one country they had lived in before the war to another country.
Regional partners, the Humanitarian Law Center, Reserach and Documentation Center and Documenta are facilitating a process of civil society consultation on mechanisms of truth-seeking and truth-telling about war crimes in the former Yugoslavia.
The Humanitarian Law Center, Research and Documentation Center, and Documenta began the consultative process with civil society in May 2006 when they jointly organized the First Regional Forum titled Post-conflict Truth-seeking in Sarajevo. A consultation with artists from the region was organized in Belgrade in December 2006. The Second Regional Forum was held in Zagreb in February 2007. National and regional consultations with youth, journalists, and human rights organizations followed. National and regional consultations with associations of victims, women leaders, associations of war veterans, and professional groups will be held in 2008. Regional forums in Podgorica and Priština will also be held in 2008. The objective of the debate is to find a truth-seeking and truth-telling model, including HLC, RDC, and Documenta’s initiative for establishing a regional body for truth-seeking and truth-telling about war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia, which would be able to serve justice and guarantee non-repetition of crimes. We will share the civil society recommendations with national governments on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, the UN, the European Commission and Council of Europe.
